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The Bowman
The Bowman, also known as The Western Hero, is a character in The Messenger. He wields a bow and rescues Ninja Village from the demon army in the beginning of the story. Profile Appearance The Bowman wears yellow traditional East Asian armor. He has a short brown cone-shaped hat with yellow ear flaps, a yellow mouth balaclava, brown shoulder pads, brown gloves, and brown and yellow mountain boots, all trimmed with beige fur. He has brown pants. On his back is a brown quiver filled with arrows with orange fletchings. The Bowman wields a simple yellow bow with a beige string. Personality The Bowman does not have many lines of dialogue interaction, but from the few lines provided, he seems very straightforward and wise. Main Story In the middle of the Demon King's assault on Ninja Village, The Bowman appears from the west, riding on a flying orange phoenix. The Bowman jumps off of the phoenix and straight up into the air, shooting a barrage of glowing magic blue arrows at the demon army, which kills two Turtle Man Ranged enemies and pushes back the Demon King. The demons leave, and Ninja approaches The Bowman, inquiring if The Bowman is the Western Hero of legend. The Bowman confirms he is indeed the Western Hero and tasks Ninja with the role of The Messenger. The Bowman hands Ninja the scroll and directs him to climb to the top of Glacial Peak, where three sages would be waiting for Ninja. The Bowman bids good luck to Ninja and teleports away in a flash of blue light. A statue of The Bowman can be seen in the Tower of Time, above the first Shop in the tower. The statue's plaque translates to "THE BOWMAN." Trivia * The Bowman is referred to as "PAST_MESSENGER" in the dialogue files and "PastMessenger" in the picture files. * The Bowman's overworld sprites are pink in the picture files. The reason for this is because the whole level is palette swapped via lookup tables during the cutscene that occurs while exiting Ninja Village that changes the background from daylight to nighttime, so in order for The Bowman to look yellow and brown, his game files need to be pink. This process was explained in the "Sabotage end of year (Q&A 2018)" video. * The GOG "The Messenger - Gameplay Trailer" video depicts a beta talk portrait icon for The Bowman. The beta talk portrait icon was a highly-detailed close-up of the upper half of the overworld sprite, while the final talk portrait icon is a highly-detailed close-up of The Bowman's face. Gallery PastMessenger_8.png PastMessenger_Arrows.png PastMessenger_Teleport.png Phoenix_8_Flight.png Phoenix 8 FlightB.png PastMessengerNoScrollIcon.png|Talk portrait icon without the scroll. TowerOfTime_8_BackAsset14.png|Tower of Time statue, "THE BOWMAN." Intro_5.png|Intro cutscene depicting The Bowman arriving from the west on a phoenix. Intro_6.png|Intro cutscene depicting Ninja noticing The Bowman's approach. Intro_7.png|Intro cutscene depicting The Bowman instructing Ninja to deliver the scroll to the top of Glacial Peak. The_Bowman_Screenshot_1.png|The Bowman riding a phoenix towards Ninja Village. PastMessenger_8_(Color-Corrected).png|Color-corrected spritesheet, "PastMessenger_8.png." PastMessenger_Arrows_(Color-Corrected).png|Color-corrected spritesheet, "PastMessenger_Arrows.png." PastMessenger_Teleport_(Color-Corrected).png|Color-corrected spritesheet, "PastMessenger_Teleport.png." Phoenix_8_Flight_(Color-Corrected).png|Color-corrected spritesheet, "Phoenix_8_Flight.png."